How to get big rounds on truck?

[avalancher]

I haul now with a sixteen foot trailer, but even when I had a pickup I used the same principal in getting large rounds in the back of my truck. Winch and ramp.

Here is the winch I use, a warn 3700 portable winch. With its own battery, you can move it anywhere you need it, and works pretty good to get your truck out of the mud.

With a ramp, you can pull just about anything you want within reason, here are some red oak pieces I hauled home using just the ramp and winch to get them in the bed.

Just a matter of knocking em down and pulling em in.

 

[Coach B]

I've been cutting some big red oak the last few weeks as well. I've just been taking the Monster Maul with me and if I can't bust it with that then the chunck stays in the woods. Never heard of noodle cuts before now. Will for sure try them the next time I cant split one.

 

[fast*st]

I haul now with a sixteen foot trailer, but even when I had a pickup I used the same principal in getting large rounds in the back of my truck. Winch and ramp.
Just a matter of knocking em down and pulling em in.

Thats a nice way to go! good old incline plane, I side loaded some 20' oak logs much the same but wrapped the rope around the trunks and pulled from the top, then they rolled right up the ramps onto the trailer and even loaded a second and third tier high. I ended up re-rigging my winch with another pulley to get a 1:2 ratio so it'd pull faster as it wasn't even straining rolling the big trunks onto the trailer.

 

[blades]

Always multiple ways to skin a cat with a little thought aforehand.

 

[ja1724]

Thanks for all the replies everybody. I will definitely be rolling in the woods now with a sledge and wedge, and some sort of manual winch on the back of my truck. I have to go now I think my noodler is calling me. :tongue2:

 

[fields_mj]

I cut my firewood 23" long wich often makes the rounds heavy and hard to split. If they don't split with 2 or 3 well placed hits with an X27, then I roll them over and noodle them. My 064 works really well for this. It's pretty quick, and it gives me a good excuse for running that saw.

 

[war-wagon]

Just discovered yesterday that the sides of my trailer are a touch wider than the bucket on the New Holland 3045. Loaded some HUGE rounds and never once did my back hurt. Kind of an expensive way to go though.

 

[zogger]

Ok, maybe this is a dumb question but I do alot of cutting in the woods by myself and many times I'll come across some big diameter trees. Like right now I'm working a 28" diameter red oak and a 30" diameter white oak. The problem is, after bucking them into 16-18" rounds they still weigh somewhere in the 250lb range. I can lift a few into my truck but then my back and legs say "no more".

Now I know the obvious answers here like - bring a helper or cut smaller wood but does anybody out there have any creative solutions for getting big rounds on your truck when you're alone?

Thanks much.



Shindaiwa 488 Pro 18" bar
Husky 576XP 24" bar

Winch, ramp, take the whole logs home, cut them at your leisure there right off the truck. Winch on big ones, throw the smaller logs and branches you can handle on top, go home.

In the field, and you can't winch anything from severe lack of winch, have your friend Conan with you, bust them up with a splitting axe or maul right there where you cut them, or noodle to size. They don't have to be split all the way, just down small enough you can move them.

You can always cut smaller too, milk the branches out. Sometimes..depending on what you are getting..don't throw away and not take branch sized wood that is roughly the same size you are going to be splitting from big rounds. Heck with it, take the small stuff, eliminate the middle man step of splitting entirely, and those small rounds go right on the stack. So what if you can't get the monster rounds, you'll still get a lot of wood. And you can use a smaller saw that sips fuel and is much faster to cut with to do this.

I am a big proponent of milking trees out. It doesn't take that much longer to really get all the branch wood, and it adds up! Half or close to it of what I burn myself is stuff most guys wouldn't bother cutting, but tell ya whut, it burns just fine, and has been for me for..well.... around 40 years now I guess.

 

[drumbum]

+1 on the Ramen diet, just do it in the woods unless you need compost/fire starter.

 

[PlankSpanker]

OR you could find a like-minded wood cutting friend who maybe has some equipment you don't have, and cut more efficiently. Even better when you get 3 or 4 guys involved. A skid loader is invaluable to get things done quickly as well as a nice trailer to haul yer booty. Here's a shot of about 2 hours work with 2 guys and a skid loader.

However if you prefer to be on your own, I always opt for the sledge and wedge approach. That's the way my Daddy taught me...

 

[BPS. LLC]

I have a 12' utility trailer that has paid for itself with money saved from pain medicine. Tractor Supply Carry on, paid $700 for it 10 years ago...now they're $1500, but still a nice single axle 3000lb gvwr trailer with ramps. Doesn't sit high off of the ground and heavy round can be rolled right on. By the time the trailer is full, you're at the weight capacity, no need to try to stack! And you almost have a cord of wood when you're done!

 

[CTYank]

Noodling Details

You don't have to noodle all the way through to round. (You might need a periscope to see above the noodles.)

What I often do is to noodle in about the width of the chain, in ~20" diam. rounds. Then, set a wedge near either end of the cut. Couple of hits on each wedge with 6-pounder generally does it.

 

[Steve2910]

Anything fairly straight-grained I would bust up into manageable chunks w/ the maul or Fiskars. Knotty or crotchy stuff, noodling's the way to go. I'm sure you'll get some off-the-wall replies here. Some of them may be great ideas, but, if you try to re-invent the wheel to bring some firewood home, you're kind of defeating the purpose of burning wood to save $$

 

[Stihlman441]

Noodle away,if your clutch cover gets clogged up drop the bar nose a little and the noodles will get shorter.

[video=youtube;jnlGWXyODtY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnlGWXyODtY[/video]

 

[arlen]

bring a splitter

Just another thought, but if you are bringing a truck without a trailer you can tow your splitter and split the rounds on the spot or at least down to managable sizes. :msp_w00t: David

 

[Whitespider]

That's the way I do it arlen.
But I have the advantage of doing all my firewood harvesting in the woodlot surrounding my house. I never load a round that I plan to split... I rarely even move a round (other than to roll it a few inches if needed to make room for the next cut) and only pick them up as I split. I split at the cutting site and toss the splits into the trailer as I work. Once loaded, I pull the trailer right up to the wood stack, or the basement coal door if it's from a dry standing-dead. Doing it that way I only handle a round once, and only handle a split twice if the wood is dry... if the wood is wet or green and needs to be stacked outside, my handling of the splits doubles because I have to re-load the stacks back into the trailer and then unload into the coal shoot after seasoning.

For that reason I usually don't cut standing-dead and blow-downs until I'm relatively sure they're dry (bark falls off) and I'm ready to put the wood directly in the house (beginning early to mid fall). Often the bottom 10-15 feet of a standing dead will be wet and I don't bother to split it right-a-way... just leave those rounds lay for a a while and split/load after they've had a chance to dry (I don't know why, but rounds from dead trees season/dry a ton faster than live-cut). I try to handle the wood as few times as I can possibly manage... but this is sliding off-topic... the question was how to load large rounds.

 

[jhoff310]

i managed to run across an old pair of railroad timber tongs like these here Forged Track Tools Page 15 . I usually have someone with me to load the big stuff. With the longer handles it makes it quite easy to lift the big stuff. I have been thinking about buying a second pair just to have on hand.

Jeff

 

[Guido Salvage]

Just another thought, but if you are bringing a truck without a trailer you can tow your splitter and split the rounds on the spot or at least down to managable sizes. :msp_w00t: David

I used to do this but then saw the light. Why should I take a 24" round and split it into 15-20 pieces and load them individually into the truck only to get home and have to unload and stack them all again? I would rather load the round (busting it in half if necessary) and load that on the truck and then split them at the shed, moving the splits just once.

The math is simple:

1 round loaded on the truck
1 round unloaded off the truck
20 pieces split and stacked
22 pieces moved

20 splits loaded on the truck
20 splits unloaded off the truck
40 pieces moved

Your back, your time, your choice.....

 

[fast*st]

I used to do this but then saw the light. Why should I take a 24" round and split it into 15-20 pieces and load them individually into the truck only to get home and have to unload and stack them all again? I would rather load the round (busting it in half if necessary) and load that on the truck and then split them at the shed, moving the splits just once.

I'm wondering if the horsepower required is the same though, time in woods is greatly reduced loading the big rounds, if splitting time is the same, you are swapping the time and effort of unloading one big beefy round with say 20 small pieces, It would seem any loss would be handling the split wood twice.

 

[Guido Salvage]

I'm wondering if the horsepower required is the same though, time in woods is greatly reduced loading the big rounds, if splitting time is the same, you are swapping the time and effort of unloading one big beefy round with say 20 small pieces, It would seem any loss would be handling the split wood twice.

My personal experience is that I typically have to roll the rounds to the truck anyway as I cut in mountainous terrain with a limited number of roads. If I split at the truck I have to load all the splits and then unload them into the shed.

If I load the rounds I am out of the woods sooner and then just roll them off the truck onto the ground 4-5 at a time and split them with the Monster Maul. I only have to move the split pieces once, which seems like a savings to me. While it only takes 1 trip to the truck to load a round, it might take me 5 or 6 trips to load all the pieces.

Works for me, it may not for anyone else.